The State of Utah is looking for justice for Maureen Hunsacker, a young mother of three, who was murdered in 1986 while working at a gas station. She had been kidnapped, strangled to death, and her throat was cut. Her killer, Ralph Menzies, has been sitting on death row since he was convicted in 1988.
This is Utah’s third attempt to carry out the execution, however, Menzies has exhausted all his appeals and may finally have to face the music. The Utah Attorney General’s Office posted on its website that “[a]fter many years and numerous appeals, the Supreme Court recently denied a petition to overturn Menzies’ conviction. Now, the state seeks a death warrant. Time has nearly run out for Menzies, and his sentence will be carried out: death by firing squad.”
A judge has ordered a competency evaluation before the state proceeds with the execution.
The last execution in Utah was carried out in 2010 when Ronnie Lee Gardner faced a firing squad for the murder of Michael Burdell. Gardner was shot in the chest by a five-man firing squad wielding .30 caliber rifles. He was strapped to a chair, dressed in black, hooded, with a target on his chest.
Currently, five States authorize execution by firing squad, including South Carolina, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Idaho, and Utah.
Many states have looked to traditional methods of execution as access to drugs required for lethal injections has become difficult to obtain. For example, South Carolina recently signed into law legislation mandating electrocution as the primary method of execution unless the condemned chooses the firing squad or lethal injection, if available. Alabama adopted execution via nitrogen gas in 2018, and executed Kenneth Smith on January 25, 2024 for brutally stabbing and beating Elizabeth Sennett to death — the first such execution in the United States. Two other States, including Mississippi and Oklahoma also allow execution by nitrogen gas.
Ironically, death penalty opponents, in their efforts to eliminate lethal injection, and the death penalty altogether, have triggered the return of the firing squad, electrocution, and gas in several States. Death penalty opponents typically invoke the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment to declare a particular method of execution, or even the death penalty itself, unconstitutional. To be sure, these arguments are absurd and have no basis in sound constitutional interpretation.
The death penalty is a controversial issue — I get it. While I support its use as a sentencing option for the most heinous of crimes, and am certain that it is constitutional, I understand concerns over pain, suffering, and dignity underlying many of the arguments against the death penalty. I oppose painful executions, I decry suffering in all its forms, even for the most contemptible criminal offenders, and I value the dignity of all when facing the end of their natural lives here on earth.
However, when someone who forfeits his life due to his own actions, which oftentimes bring pain and suffering to others, without any shred of dignity shown, I cannot say that justice does not require an eye for an eye. Maureen Hunsacker requires it. Elizabeth Sennett requires it. And Lady Justice shall deliver it.
John Q. Prosecutor